Hostomel recycles 15,000 tons of rubble from destroyed housing to use in reconstruction

As part of the project to restore seven residential buildings in Hostomel, Kyiv region, the French company Neo-Eco dismantled four houses destroyed by russia's armed invasion and processed 15,000 tons of construction waste.

The company's regional business director Kyrylo Chernyshuk told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

What is the problem?

Unexploded ordnance, debris, burned vehicles, military equipment, spent disposable NLAW systems, batteries, and building ruins — all this is waste that remains in cities, towns, forests, fields, beaches, in water, and on our land after hostilities. Hostomel in the Kyiv region is no exception, having experienced russia's bombardment and occupation. 

One of the biggest problems is the waste from destroyed infrastructure. According to the Minister of Development of Communities and Territories, Oleksii Chernyshov, russian troops destroyed about 6,800 residential buildings in Ukraine.

Even before a full-scale war, construction waste made up the bulk of waste in landfills because it has a large volume, and much of such waste remains during reconstruction or construction.

So the experts believe we must not allow the merciless impact of improper processing and senseless and harmful burial of these items on the territory of Ukraine.

What is the solution?

The business director emphasized that Ukraine currently has about 1.4 billion tons of construction waste from military operations.

"The pilot project in Hostomel shows how to reuse such materials ecologically and economically efficiently. Neo-Eco Ukraine is only at the start of a long way to restore Ukraine using an ecological method," Chernyshuk said.

The project manager said that the company could dismantle the houses in Hostomel in the shortest possible time. The demolition of the first of the four buildings began on January 20.

In the middle of February, special equipment, which processes construction waste, arrived and was installed.

"Thanks to the availability of everything necessary for processing, as well as the calculated strategy of dismantling all buildings, Neo-Eco Ukraine managed to complete this stage in just four weeks — twice as fast as planned," Chernyshuk stated.

It was reported that the concept of restoration of buildings is being jointly developed by two architectural companies with which Neo-Eco has signed a cooperation agreement. These are the Ukrainian LLC "New Immo Services" (Nhood Ukraine) and the French architectural company Blau. The concept has already been shown to local residents.

How does it work?

After sorting 10% of construction waste as potentially hazardous (asbestos-containing) or non-recyclable, it was sent to specialized and certified companies for disposal.

The remaining 90% of construction waste was successfully processed on-site. "According to preliminary estimates of our experts, it was possible to process about 15,000 tons of construction waste into new construction materials," Chernyshuk said.

Neo-Eco Ukraine plans to start the construction of new buildings in June 2023, but the legal issues of project implementation have not yet been fully resolved. "Currently, we're on the stage of obtaining cadastral numbers of the land plot," Chernyshuk clarified.

Reference

For 17 years, the French company Neo-Eco has been working on the principle of a closed cycle economy, integrating already used materials.

According to the same principle, the materials of the destroyed buildings in Hostomel will be used during the reconstruction of the buildings.